The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob,
was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
formed in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in late July 1914. It originated on the recommendation of
Herbert Kitchener, then the
Secretary of State for War
The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
to obtain 500,000 volunteers for the Army. Kitchener's original intention was that these men would be formed into units that would be ready to be put into action in mid-1916, but circumstances dictated the use of these troops before then. The first use in a major action of Kitchener's Army units came at the
Battle of Loos
The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used Chemical weapons in World War I, ...
(September–October 1915).
Origins

Contrary to the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, Kitchener predicted a long and brutal war. He believed that arrival in Europe of an overwhelming force of new, well-trained and well-led divisions would prove a decisive blow against the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
. Kitchener fought off opposition to his plan, and attempts to weaken or water down its potential, including piece-meal dispersal of the New Army battalions into existing regular or
Territorial Force
The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry in ...
divisions (the view of the Commander-in-Chief of the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF),
Field Marshal French). Kitchener declined to use the existing Territorial Force (set up by
Lord Haldane and
Douglas Haig
Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the British Army. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary F ...
as part of the Army reforms of the Edwardian period) as the basis for the New Army, as many of its members had volunteered for "Home Service" only, and because he was suspicious of the poor performance of French "territorials" in the
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
1870–1871. In the early days of the war, the Territorial Force could not reinforce the regular army, as it lacked modern equipment, particularly artillery. In addition, it took time to form first-line units composed only of men who had volunteered for "General Service".
Those recruited into the New Army were used to form complete
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
s under existing British Army
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation.
In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...
s. These new battalions had titles of the form "xxth (Service) Battalion,
". The first New Army divisions were first used in August 1915 at Suvla Bay
View of Suvla from Battleship Hill
Suvla () is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros.
On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as ...
during the Gallipoli Campaign and also the Battle of Loos
The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used Chemical weapons in World War I, ...
on the Western Front in the autumn of 1915; they were sorely tested in the Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...
. The initial BEF—a single army of five regular divisions in August 1914, grew to two field armies comprising 16 divisions by the end of 1914 when the Territorials had been deployed, and to five armies totalling around 60 divisions in strength by the summer of 1916; approximately 2 million men, of whom around half were infantry (the rest were gun crews, supply and logistics men etc.)
Recruitment
All five of the full army groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) were made up of volunteer recruits, which included the famous Pals' Battalions. Due to the huge numbers of men wishing to sign up, in places queues up to a mile long formed outside recruitment offices, there were many problems in equipping and providing shelter for the new recruits. Rapidly the Government added many new recruitment centres, which eased the admissions burden, and began a programme of temporary construction at the main training camps. By 12 September, almost half a million men had enlisted. The priority placement of recruits was to make up the strength of K1 units, then the Reserve battalions, and then the K2 units. Almost 2.5 million men volunteered for Kitchener's Army. The War Office stipulated that NCOs for these new formations should be selected from those men reenlisting.
By the beginning of 1916, enthusiasm for volunteering had waned. Great Britain resorted to conscription under the Military Service Act 1916
The Military Service Act 1916 (5 & 6 Geo. 5. c. 104) was an Act of Parliament, act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom during the First World War to impose conscription in Great Britain, but not in Ireland or any other British jurisdi ...
, like the other great powers involved in the war. (Conscription was also applied "in reverse", so that skilled workers and craftsmen who had volunteered early in the war could be drafted back into the munitions industry, where they were sorely needed.)
The first conscripts arrived in France in late 1916 to fill the gaps in the volunteer units, which had been greatly diminished during the Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...
. After the bloody battles of 1916 and 1917, many of the British Army facing the Ludendorff Offensive of 1918 were conscripts, many of whom were youths under 21 years of age, or in their late thirties or older. Many of the other soldiers were men of lower levels of fitness who had volunteered earlier in the war and had since been "combed out" of rear echelon jobs. Roughly half of those who served in the British Army throughout the war, including more than half of the five million men serving in the British Army in 1918, were conscripts.
Training
The British Army traditionally recruited on a regimental basis, therefore a recruit accepted into the Army was first sent to his new regiment's depot, where he received his kit and was introduced to army discipline and training. Next he was sent to the main training camps to join his battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
. In practice, no regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation.
In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...
had the required stocks of equipment, or the manpower to train the flood of recruits; men trained wearing their own clothes and shoes. To mitigate this problem, the army issued old stored uniforms, including First Boer War
The First Boer War (, ), was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British ad ...
–vintage red jackets. Some regiments bought their own uniform and boots with money paid from public collections. Many regiments were also issued with emergency blue uniforms, popularly known as ''Kitchener Blue''. Whilst this crisis went on, the soldiers wore regimental and unit badges or patches on their clothing. Many photographs from the era show uniformed soldiers drilling alongside civilian clothed soldiers, perhaps led by red-jacketed NCOs.
The Regiments also suffered from a lack of officers to train them. The government called up all reserve-list officers and any British Indian Army
The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...
officer who happened to be on leave in the UK during the period. Men who had been to a recognised public school and university graduates, many of whom had some prior military training in Officer Training Corps, were often granted direct commissions. Commanding officers were encouraged to promote promising leaders and later in the war it was common for officers (" temporary gentlemen") to have been promoted from the ranks to meet the demand, especially as casualty rates among junior infantry officers were extremely high. Many officers, both regular and temporary, were promoted to ranks and responsibilities far greater than they had ever realistically expected to hold.
The Army had difficulty supplying new units with enough weapons. No artillery pieces had been left in Britain to train new artillery brigades, and most battalions had to drill with obsolete rifles or wooden mockups. By early 1915 the Government had overcome many of these problems. Among its methods was pressing into use old ceremonial cannons and unfinished modern artillery pieces which lacked targeting sights. During 1915, it corrected such shortages.
Later developments
At the beginning of 1918, the shortage of manpower in the British Expeditionary Force in France became acute. The Army ordered infantry divisions to be reduced from twelve infantry battalions to nine. The higher-numbered battalions (in effect the New Army units, and some Second-Line Territorial units) were to be disbanded rather than the lower-numbered Regular and First-Line Territorial battalions. (Since Kitchener's death in 1916, no other major figure opposed this fundamental change to the principles on which the New Army had been raised.) In some cases, New Army divisions had to disband about half of their units to make room for surplus battalions transferred from Regular or First-Line Territorial divisions. While the change reduced the unique sense of identity of some New Army formations, it developed the divisions in France into more homogeneous units. By this time there was no longer much real distinction between Regular, Territorial, and New Army divisions.
Structure
Kitchener's New Army was made up of the following Army Groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) and Divisions:
K1 Army Group
* 9th (Scottish) Division
* 10th (Irish) Division
* 11th (Northern) Division
* 12th (Eastern) Division
The 12th (Eastern) Division was an infantry Division (military), division raised by the British Army during the World War I, First World War from men volunteering for Kitchener's Army, Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service in the Tre ...
* 13th (Western) Division
* 14th (Light) Division—originally ''8th (Light) Division'' but renumbered when the regular army 8th Division was formed in September 1914.
K2 Army Group
* 15th (Scottish) Division
* 16th (Irish) Division
* 17th (Northern) Division
* 18th (Eastern) Division
* 19th (Western) Division
* 20th (Light) Division
K3 Army Group
* 21st Division
* 22nd Division
* 23rd Division
* 24th Division
* 25th Division
* 26th Division
Original K4 Army Group
Kitchener's Fourth New Army was formed from November 1914 with
* 30th Division
* 31st Division
* 32nd Division
* 33rd Division
* 34th Division
* 35th Division
The divisions were not fully formed when the decision was made to use them to provide replacements for the first three New Armies. The divisions were broken up on 10 April 1915; the infantry brigades and battalions became reserve formations and the other divisional troops were transferred to the divisions of the newly created Fourth and Fifth New Armies.
K4/K5 Army Group
Redesignated K4 following breakup of original K4.
* 30th Division—originally designated as ''37th Division''
* 31st Division—originally designated as ''38th Division''
* 32nd Division—originally designated as ''39th Division''
* 33rd Division—originally designated as ''40th Division''
* 34th Division—originally designated as ''41st Division''
* 35th Division—originally designated as ''42nd Division''
K5 Army Group
Following the re-designation of the previous K5 Army Group, a new K5 Army Group was formed.
* 36th (Ulster) Division
The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the ''Ulster Division'', it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteers, who f ...
—raised as the ''Ulster Division'', numbered on 28 August 1914.
* 37th Division—originally designated as ''44th Division''
* 38th (Welsh) Division—originally designated as ''43rd Division''
* 39th Division
* 40th Division
* 41st Division
Divisional structure in 1915
In 1915, the prescribed structure of a division would have comprised the following units:
* Divisional HQ
* Infantry
Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...
:
** 3 brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...
s, each comprising:
*** 4 battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
s (with 4 machine guns each)
* Mounted troops:
** 1 cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...
squadron
** 1 cyclist company
* Artillery
Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...
:
** HQ Divisional Artillery
** 3 field artillery
Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support army, armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement.
Until the ear ...
brigades (each of 4 batteries of four 18 pounders and one ammunition column)
** 1 field artillery howitzer
The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...
brigade (of 4 batteries of four 4.5" howitzers and an ammunition column)
** 1 heavy battery (four 60 pounders with an ammunition column)
** 1 divisional ammunition column
* Engineers
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...
:
** HQ Divisional Engineers
** 3 field companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether natural, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specifi ...
* Signals Service:
** 1 signal company
* Pioneers:
** 1 pioneer battalion (with 4 machine guns)
* 3 field ambulance
A field ambulance (FA) is the name used by the British Army and the armies of other Commonwealth nations to describe a mobile medical unit that treats wounded soldiers very close to the combat zone. In the British military medical system that deve ...
s
* 1 sanitary section
* 1 mobile veterinary
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both ...
section
* 1 motor ambulance workshop
* 1 divisional train
Number of troops and equipment:
* All ranks: 19,614
* Horses & mule
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...
s: 5,818
* Guns:
** 48 × 18 pounders
** 16 × 4.5" howitzers
** 4 × 60 pounders
* Vickers machine guns: 52
* Assorted carts & vehicles: 958
* Cycles: 538
* Motor vehicle
A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...
s:
** cycles: 19
** cars: 11
** lorries: 4
** ambulances: 21
Divisional structure in 1918
In 1918, a typical division would have comprised the following units:
* Divisional HQ
** Infantry
Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...
** 3 brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...
s,
*** each comprising 3 battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
s, with 36 Lewis Guns (light machine guns) each
*** and one light trench mortar battery with eight 3" Stokes
* Artillery
Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...
** H.Q. Divisional Artillery
** 2 field artillery brigades
*** each comprising three batteries with six 18 pounders and one battery of six 4.5" howitzers
** 2 medium trench mortar batteries with 6 × 2" mortars each
** 1 divisional ammunition column
* Engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
s
** H.Q. Divisional Engineers
** 3 field companies
* Signals Service
** 1 signal company
* Pioneers
** 1 pioneer battalion, 12 Lewis Guns
* Battalion, Machine Gun Corps
** comprising 4 companies, with 16 Vickers machine gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...
s each
* 3 field ambulances
* 1 sanitary section
* 1 mobile veterinary section
* 1 motor ambulance workshop
* 1 divisional train
Number of troops and equipment:
* All ranks: 16,035
* Horses & mules: 3,838
* Guns: 48
** 18 pounders: 36
** 4.5" howitzers: 12
** trench mortars: 36
*** Stokes: 24
*** Medium: 12
* Machine guns: 400
** Vickers: 64
** Lewis: 336
* Assorted carts & vehicles: 870
* Cycles: 341
* Motor cycles: 44
* Motor cars: 11
* Motor lorries: 3
* Motor ambulances: 21
See also
* List of British divisions in World War I
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Beckett, Ian, Timothy Bowman, and Mark Connelly. ''The British Army and the First World War'' (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
*
* Ginzburg, Carlo. "‘Your Country Needs You’: A Case Study in Political Iconography." ''History Workshop Journal''. No. 52. 2001.
*
* Royle, Trevor. ''Kitchener Enigma: The Life and Death of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, 1850-1916'' (The History Press, 2016).
* {{cite book , last = Simkins , first = Peter , year = 2007 , title = Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–16 , publisher = Pen & Sword Military , location = Barnsley, South Yorkshire , isbn = 978-1-84-415585-9
External links
E-book
''The First Hundred Thousand'' by John Hay Beith at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
E-book
''All in It: K(1) Carries On a Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand'' by John Hay Beith at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
E-book
''Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army'' by James Norman Hall at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
British Army in World War I
Military units and formations of the British Army in World War I
Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in World War I
United Kingdom in World War I